April 1, 2025 –It’s David versus Goliath once again, this time in Canada the new Promised Land of fresh waters and minerals.
On March 4, Trump imposed unfair tariffs on Canada to ruin its economy and take over its natural resources. But to Trump’s surprise, he found that the usually “polite and quiet Canadians” have guts, if provoked, to hit back as hard with reciprocal tariffs.
Dealing with Trump’s tariffs are Canada’s 13 warring Premieres and their fighting new Prime Minister Mark Carney. In his speech when sworn-in as PM on March 14, Carney showed he was a man of action focused on “work to do.” He vowed to protect Canada’s economy and sovereignty and only talk with Trump when Trump respects Canada’s sovereignty.
In Carney’s short speech, Canadians saw a leader who could unite and inspire them to bear the brunt of Trump’s war as they respond with reciprocal tariffs while looking after each other. As a result, the Liberal Party’s approval rating suddenly spiked in the polls, leaving the once-leading Conservatives behind. On March 23, PM Carney called for a snap election to get a mandate from Canadians as the 24th Prime Minister of Canada on April 28.
Opposing PM Carney in the April 28 election is Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, “Canada’s Donald Trump” for his confrontational style, negativity, isolationism, hostile, acerbic mind and fake smiles. He is a local career politician with no international experience at a time when Canada needs like-minded world leaders as allies. The polls said a majority of Canadians have an unfavorable view of Poilievre and Trump said of him on TV:”I don’t like him. He says stupid things.”
Poilievre was first elected MP in 2004 at age 25 and had dreamed of becoming Prime Minister since. He use his MP position to fuel his ambition. Lately he had been flooding the media with ads demeaning PM Carney which only proved how scared he’s of Carney who is a more decent and competent leader with worldwide experience on crisis management that he could never have.
Poilievre’s long MP track record only shows that he has consistently sided with the wealthy at the expense of working people. He has not earned a living as an ordinary worker himself. The Canadian government, as his main employer, has made him a millionaire although he pretends in self-promoting ads to be an everyday Canadian in rural Canada with a wife and child.
If Poilievre and his Conservative Party win this coming election, he will set the country back decades with his anti-immigration policies and negative belief that the country is broken. Like Trump, he denies climate change and supports big business polluters. He does not believe in women’s and LGBTQ rights and decries same sex marriage and abortion rights. He has no clue about the economy except how to enrich his already wealthy white friends. He sympathized with the Ottawa 2022 truck convoy rightist organizers, his political base. He panders to the most ignorant, chauvinistic, and racist Canadians and their preferences because he shares them. His “Canada First”populism ties up with Trump’s MAGA movement.
Double Trouble: Trump and Poilievre
How can Canadians including one million Canadian Filipinos in Canada help PM Carney save Canada’s sovereignty and economy from Trump and Poilievre? For Filipinos in Canada, now is the time to repay the country that has given them opportunities for a better life and a brighter future for their children.
On April 28 Canadians have a do-or-die choice. It’s win or lose time for them. Vote Carney and Liberals for a majority government to save Canada from Trump’s crazy annex plan and tariff threats? Or vote Poilievre who will deliver Canada to Trump on a silver platter to gain his favor?
Voting Liberal, not only for Carney, but for all Liberal Party MP candidates running in 343 electoral ridings across the country, is the only way Canadians can keep both Trump and Poilievre off their backs!
Editor of Canadian Filipino Net
Eleanor R. Laquian has written four best-selling books, and co-authored four others with husband Prod Laquian. She has served in various capacities at the University of British Columbia’s Institute of Asian Research as manager of administration and programs; editor and chair, publications committee; and primary researcher of the Asian Immigration to Canada project. She has a degree in journalism from Maryknoll College in the Philippines, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of the Philippines. She did postgraduate studies at the School of Public Communications, Boston University in the U.S.
She has been researching and writing about Filipino immigration to Canada since 1969. For her Master's degree in Public Administration at the university of the Philippines, she conducted in 1972 the first, and up to now, the only nationwide survey of Filipinos in Canada. It was done by mailed questionnaires with self addressed stamped envelopes for replies and followed up by personal in depth interviews of respondents who agreed to be interviewed, Interviews were done on a two-week drive from Ottawa to Vancouver in the summer of '72.
Her Master's thesis was published in 1973 in Ottawa by the United Council of Filipino Associations in Canada. It was titled A Study of Filipino Immigrants in Canada, 1962 - 1972. As the primary researcher of UBC Institute of Asian Research immigration Project, she edited in 1998 a book titled The Silent Debate: Asian Immigration and Racism in Canada published by UBC. In 2005 she co-authored with her husband a book to update her MA thesis and titled it Seeking a Better Life Abroad: A Study of Filipinos in Canada 1957 - 2007. It was published in 2008 by Anvil Publishing in Manila.In 2023 she edited Indomitable Canadian Filipinos, a book on the 70-year history of Filipinos in Canada, published by Friesen Press in Manitoba, Canada.
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